Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Hyatt’s top tier Globalist elite status is awesome. It offers suite upgrades, free full breakfast, free parking, waived resort fees, and more. No other major chain offers elite status that compares. But… getting Globalist status isn’t easy. Hyatt requires staying 60 nights per year to get and maintain Globalist status. Brand new in 2024, though, you can now start to enjoy some top-tier benefits with only 40 nights under your belt. And, as always, you don’t actually have to stay 40 nights to earn credit for 40 nights. There are shortcuts for those who don’t expect to spend that much time in hotels…
Hyatt elite status overview
| Elite Status Level | Requirements Per Year | Key Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Member | Free to Join | Member rates Waived resort fees on award stays SLH Benefits 5-Brand Free Night Award |
| Discoverist | 10 Nights or 25K base points |
10% point bonus Free Premium Internet Elite check-in Free bottled water 2PM late check-out Earn Hyatt points w/ AA spend |
| Explorist | 30 Nights or 50K base points |
20% point bonus Room Upgrade Fast track to AA elite status |
| Globalist | 60 Nights or 100K base points |
30% point bonus Waived resort fees on all stays Room upgrade, including suites 4PM late check-out Club access or free breakfast Free parking on award stays Book awards w/ insufficient points |
| Lifetime Globalist | 1,000,000 Base Points | All of the above |
The chart above shows the requirements to reach each level of elite status as well as the major perks that each level offers above and beyond the lower status levels. In my opinion, Discoverist and Explorist are nice-to-have statuses, but aren’t really worth going out of your way for. Globalist status, though, is awesome. Here are the Globalist perks that I find most valuable:
- Waived resort fees on all stays: All members get waived resort fees on award stays, but Globalists also get waived fees on paid stays.
- Room upgrade, including suites: Even if you don’t use a suite upgrade award (see Milestone Rewards in the next section), you can get upgraded to a suite upon check-in (if you’re lucky).
- 4PM late check-out (not guaranteed at resorts)
- Club access or free breakfast: Globalists automatically get free access to the club lounge. If the hotel doesn’t have a club lounge, Globalists get fee full breakfast daily for each registered guest (up to 2 adults and 2 children)
- Free parking on award stays: Available where parking can be charged to your room.
Tier Qualifying Nights
Tier qualifying nights are often referred to as "elite nights". With many hotel chains, you can earn elite status by acquiring a number of tier qualifying elite nights each year. For example, Hyatt requires earning 30 elite nights per year to achieve mid-tier Explorist status, or 60 elite nights for top-tier Globalist status. Additionally, Hyatt offers "Milestone Rewards" which are perks like free lounge access, free nights, bonus points, etc. Milestone Rewards are earned within a calendar year when you achieve 20 elite nights, and every 10 elite nights after that up to 150. Read more about Hyatt elite status and Milestone Rewards in our World of Hyatt Complete Guide.
Milestone Rewards
Beginning January 1 2024, Hyatt updated the Milestone Rewards earned after every 10 nights stayed (beginning with 20 nights). Earning 40 elite nights was previously somewhat of a nothingburger with your choice of a $100 Hyatt gift card, 5K points, or some FIND credit. Now, though, the 40 night Milestone Rewards are worth pursuing. You automatically get a Guest of Honor award and you can also select a suite upgrade award. The Guest of Honor award can be used on any stay of up to 7 nights to make the hotel treat you (or whoever you give the award to) as a Globalist for the duration of that stay. That means daily free breakfast, a room upgrade even to a suite, waived resort fees, 4pm late checkout, and free parking on an award stay. And the suite upgrade Milestone Reward can be used to secure a suite upgrade in advance when you pay for a standard room with cash or points. Unfortunately, the two awards can’t be combined for a single stay, but they’re each super-valuable on their own.
| Elite Nights Earned | Milestone Reward |
|---|---|
| 20 Nights (or 35K base points) | |
| Automatic: | N/A |
| Pick 1: | 2K Next Stay Award |
| 2 Club Access Awards | |
| $25 FIND Credit | |
| 30 Nights (or 50K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-4 Free Night |
| Pick 1: | 2K Next Stay Award |
| 2 Club Access Awards | |
| $25 FIND Credit | |
| 40 Nights (or 65K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 5K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| $150 FIND Credit | |
| 50 Nights (or 80K base points) | |
| Automatic: | N/A |
| Pick 1: | 5K Bonus Points |
| 2 Suite Upgrade Awards | |
| $150 FIND Credit | |
| 60 Nights (or 100K base points) | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-7 Free Night |
| 2 Suite Upgrade Awards | |
| My Hyatt Concierge | |
| 2 Guest of Honor Awards | |
| 70, 80, 90 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| $300 FIND Credit | |
| 100 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Cat 1-7 Free Night |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night | |
| 110, 120, 130, 140 Nights | |
| Automatic: | 1 Guest of Honor Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night | |
| 150 Nights | |
| Automatic: | Ultimate Free Night Award |
| Pick 1: | 10K Bonus Points |
| 1 Suite Upgrade Award | |
| Miraval Extra Night |
Completely separate from elite status, Milestone Rewards are available to everyone and are based on the number of nights you stay in a calendar year. Most awards are valid for the rest of the calendar year in which they are selected and 14 months beyond. Free Night awards, the Miraval Extra Night Award, and the 2K Next Stay Awards are good for only 180 days.
Strategy
If you’re thinking of pursuing Hyatt elite status, I believe that it’s only worth doing if you can get to at least 40 elite nights within the calendar year. 40 nights is where the really good stuff starts. If you’ll only get to 20 or 30 nights (including the shortcuts shown below), don’t bother seeking Hyatt elite status at all.
If you have friends or a significant other that have earned Milestone Rewards that they’re not going to use, it’s worth asking them to gift those rewards to you. Here’s how some of those gifted rewards can help you:
- Club Access Award. If you have a stay at a Hyatt with a club lounge, your friend can gift you one of these awards so that you can get free access to the lounge during your stay. Of course, once you hit 20 nights, you can get your own Club Access Awards as well.
- Cat 1-4 Free Night. If a friend gifts this to you and you use it, that stay will add to your elite nights earned.
- Guest of Honor Award. If a friend gifts you this, that will help make one of your stays nicer and they’ll earn an elite night once your stay is complete. To be clear: if you use a gifted Guest of Honor Award on a 7 night stay, you’ll earn 7 elite nights and your friend will earn 1.
- Suite Upgrade Award: You can use this to upgrade your stay in advance.
Shortcuts to Elite Status
Hyatt Credit Cards
There are two Hyatt credit cards currently available in the United States:
- Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card: This card offers automatic Discoverist status and 5 elite qualifying nights every year, automatically. Plus, cardholders earn 2 qualifying nights for every $5,000 of spend. If you spend $15,000 each year (in order to also earn a free category 1-4 night with $15K spend), you’ll have a total of 11 qualifying nights (5 automatic + 6 from spend) without stepping into a Hyatt hotel. And if you use the card’s annual free night plus the free night from $15K spend in the same calendar year, you’ll be up to 13 elite qualifying nights thanks to this card.
- Chase World of Hyatt Business Credit Card: This card offers automatic Discoverist status and 5 elite qualifying nights with every $10K of spend. After $50K spend in a calendar year, the card offers 10% back on redeemed points for the rest of that calendar year. If you spend the full $50K each year, the card will give you 25 elite qualifying nights.
It is possible to have both Hyatt cards. If you spend $15K on the consumer card and $50K on the business card, you’ll earn 36 elite qualifying nights from the cards alone. If you also use the 2 free nights from the consumer card, you’ll be up to 38 elite nights and will need only 2 more nights to get your 40 night Milestone Rewards or 22 more nights to get to Globalist status.
Elite nights earned from credit cards count towards both Milestone Rewards and elite status requirements.
Promotions
Sometimes Hyatt runs promotions where it’s possible to earn double elite nights for your stays.
Status Challenges
Hyatt sometimes offers status challenges which generally work like this: Upon registering, you are granted Explorist status for 90 days. Then, if you complete 10 nights during those 90 days, you get to keep Explorist status through all of the year after you registered and through February of the year after that. In most cases, if you complete 20 nights during those 90 days, you get Globalist status and keep it through all of the year after you registered and through February of the year after that.
Important: Only nights from actual stays count towards fulfilling a challenge. Elite nights earned from credit cards and bonus elite nights from promotions do not count.
Past Challenges:
- American Airlines has repeatedly offered Hyatt status challenges. Generally, only their high level elite members (Platinum Pro or higher) can qualify for Globalist status through these challenges.
- Qualifying Corporation Employees: Employees of certain large companies like IBM, Siemens, Accenture, etc. can sometimes enroll in Hyatt elite challenges.
- FoundersCard: FoundersCard has offered Hyatt elite challenges in the past
- Bilt: Bilt has offered a Hyatt elite challenge in the past
Ask Hyatt
Some people have reported success with signing up for a challenge simply by contacting Hyatt and asking. I’ve read successful reports of people doing this over the phone, by messaging Hyatt through Facebook Messenger, and by messaging the Hyatt Concierge with Direct Messaging on Twitter. Not everyone has reported success, though, so your mileage may vary.
No Milestone Rewards w/ Status Challenges
Status earned from a status challenge does not help you earn Milestone Rewards. So, for example, if you earn Globalist status by spending 20 nights at Hyatt hotels during a challenge, you’ll only qualify for the 20 night Milestone Reward and you won’t get the most valuable Milestone Rewards that are awarded at 40 nights and above.
Partnerships
It’s possible to earn elite nights and base points (another way to earn status) through stays with certain Hyatt partners…
SLH (Small Luxury Hotels of the World)
Hyatt has a partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH). With many SLH properties, Hyatt members can earn points on paid SLH stays or redeem points for free SLH stays. Regardless, as long as the stay is booked through Hyatt, you will earn elite qualifying nights for your stay.
Mr & Mrs Smith
World of Hyatt has rolled out a promotion for buying Mr. & Mrs. Smith gift cards which is valid for purchases through March 31, 2024 (details here):
- Earn 5x World of Hyatt base points per dollar spent on eligible Mr. & Mrs. Smith gift card purchases through Hyatt
- Earn one World of Hyatt elite night credit for every $300 spent on eligible Mr. & Mrs. Smith gift card purchases, up to 60 elite nights
Hyatt has informed us that they intend to integrate 100s of Mr & Mrs Smith properties tightly into their program in “early 2024”. My guess is this means April 1 (since the gift card promo ends March 31). It’s theoretically possible that when this integration happens these Mr & Mrs Smith gift cards will turn into Hyatt gift cards. If so, that would be awesome. I’m not saying that this will happen. It’s much more of a hope than an expectation.
Meetings & Events & Business Travel
Meeting & Event Planners, Travel Advisors, and Hyatt Leverage Administrators earn 2 tier qualifying night credits for every $5,000 USD in eligible spend per year (up to a maximum of 60 tier qualifying nights).
I suspect that many readers are small business owners who have signed up for (or can easily sign up for Hyatt Leverage). With Hyatt Leverage, you and your employees can get up to 15% off standard rates at participating Hyatt hotels. That alone is enough reason to sign up. And while Leverage has minimum spend requirements to maintain your account, that requirement is waived for World of Hyatt Business Credit Card owners.
When you join Hyatt Leverage, you’re given a code for you and your employees to use when booking hotels. Using that code gives you and your employees up to 15% off standard rates. Additionally, the Hyatt Leverage administrator can earn tier qualifying nights:
- You cannot earn tier qualifying nights for your own hotel stays
- You will earn tier qualifying nights for stays booked by your employees when they book hotels using your Leverage code.
Mattress runs
A mattress run is where you book a stay solely to earn points and status. With Hyatt, you could book either cheap paid stays or cheap point award stays. Point prices start at only 3,500 points per night for off-peak category 1 hotels, so that’s not too bad. You can find a map of category 1 hotels here. Here are a few tips:
- Check-in is usually required: Most mattress runs involve physically checking into the hotel. That said, if you’re lucky you may be able to find a hotel manager willing to process your check-in remotely. If so, you may have to fax them a photo of your ID and credit card.
- Speak to a hotel manager for multi-night stays: I recommend speaking with the desk manager when you check in to explain what you’re doing. If you don’t speak with someone, they may find your room unoccupied and check you out early.
- No need to go to the hotel to check out: You can check out with the Hyatt app or you can simply wait and the hotel will automatically check you out.
Friends and family
Another option for earning elite nights is to ask friends and family to let you book their stays in your own name (even if they’re paying for the stays). If you won’t be there in person to check-in, it’s important to contact the hotel to tell them that your friend will be arriving first and should be allowed to check in. I think it’s fine to do this in moderation with close friends and family, but Hyatt does not like people doing this often. You would risk getting your account shut down if you did this too often. Additionally, there is a real risk that a hotel may refuse to let your friend or family member check in at all. While I haven’t personally encountered this issue, I’ve heard some horror stories of things like that happening, especially overseas.
Elite Benefits w/out Status
While Hyatt has an awesome elite program, they also offer multiple ways to get many of the same perks without status. Here’s how…
Guest of Honor
The best way to get Globalist benefits without status is to ask friends if they have earned any extra Guest of Honor Milestone Rewards. If so, they can gift you that reward and you can book your paid or rewards stay using that reward and you’ll be treated as a Globalist for the length of your stay (up to 7 nights). Your friend will also earn a single elite night once your stay is complete.
Note that Suite Upgrade Awards cannot be applied to Guest of Honor stays.
Use points to book or upgrade to suites or club access
Hyatt’s award charts (found here) include point prices for club access rooms, suites, and premium suites. So, when available, you can simply book the upgrade you want from the get-go. Alternatively, you can often book standard room paid rates and upgrade with points:
- Upgrade paid night to include club access: 3,000 points per night
- Upgrade paid night to a standard suite: 6,000 points per night
- Upgrade paid night to a premium suite: 9,000 points per night
Book paid stays through luxury booking services
There are many ways to book hotels through booking services that offer elite like perks: room upgrade, free breakfast, property credit, late checkout, etc. For Hyatt stays, you can get these benefits by booking through Hyatt Privé, Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts, or several other programs. We have a full round-up of such programs here: Getting the elite experience without elite status via credit card & preferred partner hotel booking programs
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] Good post on Shortcuts to Hyatt Elite Status. […]
Curious about the Leverage program, but it’s not clear from your description: does the person staying also receive standard elite credit and benefits, or is the Leverage discount in lieu of standard elite treatment?
Yes, the person staying also receives standard elite credits, points, and benefits.
I’m not too sure about the “Friends and Family” section. If you do this in the US and get caught, I guess it’s not such a big deal — you’ll probably only lose the benefits and credits for those nights. But in other countries (such as Italy) there are legal requirements for the lodging to provide a copy of the main passport page to the local tourist police. They really, really care about knowing who’s staying in that hotel room and I think you’re risking bigger trouble than just lost elite credit.
Thanks. I’ve bolded my original warning and added your warning as well.
You need to remove the stale M Life Gold match language.
Fixed. Thanks!
Just a data point. I was going to use the Mr. and Mrs. Smith route to buy a $4200 gift card for 14 elite nights. Spoke with Mr. and Mrs. Smith when the website was broken (looks like it just got fixed this afternoon and evening–IT issue with an outsourced vendor since the gift card site does not appear to be hosted by Hyatt). They know nothing about the web site. Spoke with the individual hotel I was eyeing. Spoke with Hyatt. As best I can tell, this requires a completely prepaid reservation with a combination of gift cards and cash. Gift cards are not refundable (but can be used at a different hotel if the reservation is cancelled within the hotel’s cancellation policy). The hotel has nothing to do with the reservation since all compensation comes through Mr. and Mrs. Smith and gift cards are useless at the hotel (as far as the hotel is concerned, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is essentially acting as a travel agent). Mr. and Mrs. Smith refers all questions to Hyatt. None of my Globalist benefits will apply to a booking made this way, and it is possible that some or all of my Globalist benefits will apply if I made the reservation once Hyatt integrates its systems (and I can use points!). It would be a great hack for extra elite nights except (a) I never prepay for reservations, (b) the whole reason I play in The Hobby is to get oversized value, which by definition I am not getting here since I am paying full price, and (c) I really don’t know what is going to happen in April as far as status privileges, but it can be no worse than this program because this program provides no status privileges whatsoever and Hyatt is pretty clear about that. So, after a lot of research, I will fall back on earning Globalist the old fashion way.
You’re making a sound, rational decision based on the T’s & C’s and from the perspective of someone who doesn’t otherwise want to stay at Mr/Mrs Smith hotels. But if you’re traveling to a location where MMS has a better selection of luxury properties than Hyatt, it is still a useful promotion.
Example: I’m traveling to Italy in May and Hyatt’s properties in Venice are limited to SLH properties where the points pricing is high compared to the rates. With rates around $500-$600/night, if I plan on staying 2 nights, I can get 3-4 elite night credits for $900/$1,200 in GCs or pay the SLH rate and get 2 elite nights. I won’t get “true” Globalist benefits whether I stay at SLH or MMS, but both offer similar built-in benefits.
As Nick/Greg have noted, by the time my stay rolls around, things MAY look very different with the Hyatt/MMS relationship. They MAY institute Globalist benefits, there MAY be more flexibility to use GCs at the properties for incidentals, etc. I’m not counting on it, but that will be a bonus on top of an already worthwhile alternative to SLH.
It’s not a promo worth gaming, but if you actually want to stay at luxury properties, there is value here.
You are completely correct. My purpose was totally to get the elite nights because I can’t do 60 nights organically. I could earn 1x Hyatt points on the WofH credit card vs. 3x Hyatt points on Freedom Unlimited with the latest Freedom Unlimited promotion.
So if I’m looking for Hyatt points, I want to put as little $$ on WofH credit card as possible above $15K vs Freedom Unlimited, and the Hyatt gift card promotion would have helped with that a lot. The only reason to use the WofH credit card above $15K is the elite nights that I wouldn’t receive from Freedom Unlimited.
However, I really got the feeling from all of those phone calls and e-mails that this promotion was really just a band-aid until integration better than SLH comes along. Hopefully the gift card promotion would work fine (as long as the website hosted by someone else didn’t break again and reported everything properly), but if it didn’t, my fear was that the hotel, Hyatt and Mr. and Mrs Smth would all be pointing fingers at each other. Also, unlike your situation, the location I was planning to go has a Hilton where I could stay on points and I know my status (Diamond through Aspire) will get me benefits. So for me, it really was a promo that I was trying to game, and in the end, it wasn’t worth it just to get the extra elite nights.
If a current Globalist through 2025 (we can still book unlimited GoH stays) books a bunch of GoH stays for P2 will Hyatt honor all the EQNs for P1? It’s only a 1 year play bc we won’t have unlimited GoH stays next year, but wondering if there is an advantage for this year. Essentially with a whole bunch of 1 night stays each person gets 1 EQN for each night stayed.
My understanding is that in 2024, current Globalists receive 5 GOH awards and when used or gifted, each of those will trigger one EQN. As a soft landing for current Globalists, you will also be able to book unlimited GOH nights the old-fashioned way (calling in), but any bookings above or beyond the initial 5 will not count as EQN for the Globalist.
Sadie is correct
Now what if I used/gifted all my 5 GOH awards, can I still book a stay using cash for a friend and apply this booking as GOH?
No, if you do it the old way, it’s with points only
Did not get the globalist for 2024 but was pleasantly surprised with 5 guest of honor awards that expire in Feb 28, 2025. Basically globalist status for 5 stays for myself or others. Also makes booking these so much easier than calling. Woohoo! Thanks Hyatt!
With the Personal Hyatt card, the 2 nights earned for tier status for $5000 in spending is not based on a calendar year (according to Chase). It is a rolling accumulation of spend since you got the card.
Is this true of the new Business card as well? This is not related to the $50,000 spend in a calendar year.
The business card resets on January 1st.
Yes. Thank you for confirming.
I was listening to your podcast last night on a plane and heard you both mention that earning status through points doesn’t get you milestone bonuses. That sounded wrong to me, but there was no wifi so I couldn’t check. I notice this morning that you say the same in this post (“Note though that if you earn through points rather than nights, you will not earn Milestone Rewards.”), but I’m looking at the Hyatt app graphic and hovering over each milestone shows the number of nights OR points needed to achieve the benefit (eg, 30 nights or 50k for a cat 1-4 cert and two club upgrade awards, 50 nights or 80k points for two suite upgrade awards). Am I missing something here?
You’re absolutely right and we were wrong! Thanks for the correction!
Is this completely dead now? Haven’t had any luck with concierge, facebook, twitter, chat via app or repeated call-ins.
II was able to be entered into the 20-night quick qualify promo a few weeks ago, knowing my current 31 nights I had already stayed didn’t count. But then the new biz card offer WOULD count my 31 stays + double elite nights for the rest of the year would get me to Globalist requalification in less stays than the 20-night quick qualify, would I need to do anything special to take advantage of the biz card promo instead of the quick re-qualify promo? Am I making any sense?
Yes, that makes sense. If you get the biz card now, you’ll only need 15 nights of actual stays to get to Globalist (or 10 nights at Inclusive Collection hotels if you overlap the promo dates) vs. 20 nights w/ the challenge. If you go this route and get approved for the Hyatt business card, I’d recommend asking Hyatt if they could withdraw your enrollment in the challenge because otherwise they might not be willing to offer you a new challenge in the future.
Thank you for the suggestion. I will give them a call. I appreciate your input.
Hi Greg, just wondering if the 20-night challenge can be combined with the biz card offering so that you only need 10 night to get to globalist. Any idea per you past experience?
I thought someone ask the same question but it is actually different than mine. Will still need your comment here.
No they do not stack
What is the business card offer? I have some upcoming Hyatt stays and would love to find a challenge or quick path to Globalist.
I think that was referring to an offer that is long since expired.
I’d like to refer my wife to the business card with the 2x night offer. The referral offer I generate doesn’t include the 2x nights or quarterly bonus extension. Has anyone had any luck creating a referral with the double nights? Do you think Chase will allow that offer to be referred by individuals? I want to get the card for my wife by next week as we have a stay for labor day weekend already planned so I don’t want to wait too long for that option to hopefully appear.
Asked Hyatt rep about this. It’s possible that your link will work despite not showing the offer. Will report back once I hear
Hi Greg,
did you manage to get a confirmation for this yet?
Just heard back: yes, if they apply during the offer window they will qualify for double elite nights. It doesn’t matter that the landing page doesn’t show the offer. [Note: this is consistent with what happened last time they had a similar offer with the personal Hyatt card]
Though not on the landing page, I you look at the offer details, 2x nights are listed.
I wish there were more Hyatt’s. Great hotel brand. Hard to find enough business-level Hyatt Places in many cities.
This is true but even the lowly Hyatt Place is heads and shoulders about its HHonors equivalent (the Hampton Inn). All the rooms are well appointed and spacious and I find getting work done in Hyatt Place to be very easy.
I do wish they had a bigger footprint in general though.
I signed up for the fast track globalist challenge (20 nights requirement, atm I am a matched Explorist) but also find the Hyatt business card offer intriguing. If I understand it right though they don’t stack right? The bonus elite nights I earn from getting the business card don’t count towards my 20 challenge nights right?
That’s right
Thanks for your fast reply. Another question is if I do start the challenge let’s say sometime in November and finish my 20 stays in January I will become Globalist? It doesn’t matter that it’s a mix of 2022 and 2023 stays as long as I stay 20 nights within 90 days?
I just asked this question to the Hyatt Concierge on Twitter. Response: As long as you do the 20 nights within 90 days, they can span 2022-2023.
Yep that’s what I was going to say 🙂
Hi Greg, Thank you for the article!
Do you know if Hyatt/Chase allows you to have both consumer and business cards on the same name/WoH number? I have consumer card but I would not mind to open Business card to benefit from double nights promotion.
Thank you!
Yes you can definitely have both